The MTA's mandate is to provide safe and reliable mass transportation to all our customers in the metropolitan region. Today's Board action is an acceleration of a contract that was scheduled to go into effect next year. In fact a similar acceleration was taken in 1999 on behalf of the City of New York to purchase 112 additional subway cars at a cost of $161 million. While we always strive to address the parochial interests of local officials, such as CityTicket for New York City residents, it is the mandate of the MTA Board to provide safe service for all 8 million daily customers throughout the metropolitan region.